Writing in Clay – The Relationship Between Technology and Writing

1) How writing – whether on clay or computers – forces writers to simultaneously deal with the technology at the same time that they are trying to write.

Writers are always simultaneously balancing their use of technology with their message during the writing process. Just as you don’t feel the clothes you are wearing or realize your breathing until you pay attention, technology can sometimes be seamlessly integrated into a writer’s process. A tech-savvy writer may never miss a keystroke or have to fidget with their keyboard position. They become one with their word processor. More often than not however, a writer ends up in a state where they are proficient but not perfect in their use of technology. The writer might always hit the “o” key when they mean to hit the “zero” key right above it. They might feel their itchy wool clothing as they type. They might type with only their pointer fingers despite years of teachers telling them about some mysterious “home-row” that seems to float in limbo somewhere in the center of their keyboard.

Writers must work to master their medium and only a lucky few ever become completely proficient. Just as we have keyboarding classes to improve typing ability, ancient scribes may have had inscription 101 classes where proper stylus positioning was taught along with the most effective clay kneading techniques. Practice makes perfect with everything, even technology. To be successful as a writer, one must also be successful with the medium that they are writing in.

2) How technology affects the content of their writing as well as the writing’s purpose.

Technology opens up many possibilities within the content of a writing, especially in the modern era. Being able to mix media to the extent that we do is truly a modern miracle. To have text on top of video, photos on top of text and audio on top of everything allows for so many possibilities. Audio books allow the blind to read, news programs can feature live footage and radio broadcasts can be heard live in your car from almost anywhere. The purpose of a writing is dictated by the technology used to record it, but only slightly. A good writings purpose should be able to be interpreted accurately regardless of the technology it’s found in. A newspapers online publication should feature the same news and articles, but maybe be slightly enhanced with hyperlinks and video. The physical copy should feature much (if not all) of the same writing.

3) How the type of writing they are doing influences the technology they are using.

I think that the writing’s level of formality has the largest influence on the type of technology a writer chooses to express their message. Many formal institutions require reports to be typed and printed or published online. In addition these works must adhere to strict style and file formats. Not only does this rule out analog writing technologies like handwritten papers or clay tablets, the intense formality also rules out computer programs like Microsoft paint or Notepad. These programs technically allow some word processing features, but don’t offer enough formatting options to meet the formal, professional standards. Professional writing has seemingly limited itself to Word or Excel as the technologies to be used by writers in those fields.

While this provides a nice standardized format, it stifles some of the writer’s creativity. Imagine if while reading a newspaper article, the writer’s original doodles and notes from their investigation were superimposed over the bland newsprint text and into the margins. Suddenly you feel connected to the author and to the article. A sense of sitting there with the reporter during their investigation is gained. The writer would become a real person to their reader. Someone the reader feels they know, instead of someone just recycling the same news format to them during their breakfast. The writer’s process would be opened up to the reader, allowing for a deeper understanding of how the writer arrived at their final draft and point.

Informal writings such as notes passed in the back of a classroom, shorthand notes taken during an interview or even abstract forms of “writing” like a photo essay all place a much lower standard on their formalities, and therefore allow for more freedom in their use of technologies. These informal scenarios actually favor handwriting or photography. It would be ridiculous to type up a note, double space it, left justify it, print it out, walk up to the front of the class to get it, walk back to my seat and then pass the note to my classmate. For the sake of convenience handwriting is preferred. Shorthand can be mixed with pictures and symbols to help convey the message. If someone is working out of a printed text like a repair manual, it makes sense for them to make notes in the technology itself by hand. Writing down measurements or notes by hand in the book makes sense. At the end of the day the situation, circumstance and level of formality the writing requires determines what technology ends up being used.

4) How technology affects the way a document or text is read.

Reader’s experience the medium as much as they experience the content when reading a text. When reading off of a clay tablet the reader smells the clay, feels it stick to the table and can absorb some of the warmth of its recent kneading off their hands. Multiple senses are engaged which makes for a particularly engaging reading experience. The caveat to this engagement is that more effort must be put in to the reading. The lighting has to be just right to read the inscription. The actual act of reading is slower as the size of the tablet limits the amount of information that can be inscribed. The reader has to locate the next tablet rather than just hit the scroll bar.

Reading off a computer screen like you are now is definitely less engaging, but makes bulk reading easier. If you need to look up a word, you can just highlight it, then right-click to bring up the menu, then choose the option to search google/yahoo for the definition. Readers interact with text still, but it’s a much more cerebral interaction. The keyboards texture is bland, the backlight hurts people’s eyes and carpal tunnel can develop from too much typing. The flipside to this is that readers can copy and paste from a text, scroll smoothly to the next page and consume mixed media like photos and videos that are embedded in web pages. Any technology that contains text is going to have a unique effect on the way that text is read, therefore it becomes crucial that an author picks a technology that enhances rather than hinders their message.